Sandro Botticelli, restlessness and beauty

Restlessness and beauty. With his “Venuses” he established a standard of perfection that goes from the Renaissance to the present day. Transfiguring his female figures into pop icons inevitably destined (as in these days) to be discussed.

The new art volume of the Menarini pharmaceutical group, presented on Sunday in Florence in the Apollo Salon of Palazzo Pucci, is dedicated to Sandro Botticelli. The monograph, edited by Cristina Acidini, president of the Opera di Santa Croce, speaks, thanks also to new documents found, of the greatness of Botticelli’s art and at the same time of his anxieties. This is the second monograph on Botticelli for the Menarini series, about 60 years after the first.

The journey to narrate Botticelli starts from Florence in the second half of the fifteenth century, in the dye works of Mariano Filipepi, the artist’s father, where the young Sandro, probably fascinated by the colors used every day in the workshop, approaches the study of the arts. Botticelli, who refuses to marry, will be inextricably linked to Florence, admiring the social and cultural growth of the city, from the carnival triumphs of Lorenzo de’ Medici to the penitential processions of Savonarola. As an artist he has the unique ability to adapt to his changing times. Passing from the harmony and grace of the Birth of Venus and Spring, to the staging of tormented figures and darker chromaticism, such as the Lamentation over the Dead Christ or the Altarpiece of the Convertites. Even if it will be precisely the undressed beauty of Venus and the harmony and grace of Spring that will make the master extremely popular, the subject of continuous studies.

«This extraordinary artist returns to the Menarini series with a second monograph, which takes into account the innovations that have emerged over the past sixty years, thanks to the new documents found and new interpretations, especially regarding his most evocative and mysterious paintings – explains Acidini – Furthermore the scientific investigations coinciding with the restoration of many works have enriched the knowledge of his refined and versatile painting».

Professor Stefano Zuffi, an art historian, underlined the human side of an extraordinary character who managed to create universally known works without almost ever leaving his beloved Florence. «Everyone knows him – he said provocatively – But how many understand him?». A luminous and at the same time enigmatic artist.

«The Menarini art collection aims to enhance the great Italian artists and make them known even to the youngest – explained Lucia and Alberto Giovanni Aleotti, shareholders and members of the board of Menarini – Discover Botticelli, with his anxieties behind the wonder of his paintings better known, makes this artist very close to contemporary feeling».

With the new monograph on Botticelli, Menarini continues its aim of bringing the public ever closer to Italian art, combining tradition and innovation. If the art volumes were born in 1956, in recent years the Menarini Pills of Art have been produced, video pills also aimed at the youngest and designed to raise awareness of the curiosities linked to the works of Renaissance artists. Within the channel, updated monthly with new content, videos of Botticelli’s most famous works have recently been published, as well as Leonardo’s Adoration of the Magi, Mantegna’s Madonna delle Cave and Caravaggio’s Bacchus.

«We – added the Aleotti brothers – want to enhance art and beauty. It is important that man is not seen and experienced only through his genetic and scientific characteristics which represent the heart of our research. There’s a whole world going around, it’s the world of art, of beauty. And we, as a company, have the privilege of being Italian and Florentine in particular».